Minutes of RSC Meeting:
October 18, 2013
Present: Michael Harold, Wynne Chin, Randy Lee, Stuart Long, Gangbing Song, Karl Titz, Maria
Solino, Gregory Marinic, Mark Clarke, Mary Ann Ottinger, Ezemenari Obasi, Haluk Ogmen,
Rathindra Bose, Robert Palmer, Alan Burns, Gregg Roman, Stuart Dryer, Richard Bond, Luis
Torres, Jack Fletcher, Alessandro Carrera, Abdelhak Bensaoula, Christie Peters, Kirstin Rochford,
Sandra Arntz, Cris Milligan, Selesta Hodges, Ashley Merwin, Rozlyn Reep, Maribel Salazar
Absent: Jacqueline Hawkes, Pradeep Sharma, George Zouridakis, Michael Zvolensky, Allan
Jacobson
The Chair called the meeting to order at 1:36 pm.
Welcome by the Chair: Dr. Harold welcomed everyone to the RSC Meeting and asked for any
comments or changes to the minutes from September’s meeting.
Review and Approval of September 20, 2013 Meeting Minutes: Dr. Harold asked for a motion
to approve the minutes. Dr. Dryer made the motion to accept the minutes, and Dr. Roman
seconded the motion. The minutes were approved.
Status Report by VC/VP Dr. Bose: Dr. Harold invited Dr. Bose to give a status report. Dr. Bose
gave the following information:
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Dr. Bose discussed the end of the government shutdown and noted that the damage is
not over. He expressed his concern about those colleagues who failed to ask for a nocost extension. He stated that researchers, as a result of the shutdown, are encouraged
to make sure that their grants have been received and processed and to keep us
updated.
The NSF Director has issued a letter to University Presidents stating that he will do
everything he can to issue new awards and to accelerate the process.
The fate of the study section meetings still remains to be seen.
There was a new faculty survey that was sent out to the 91 new faculty members and
everyone was asked to assist DOR by telling us if their labs have been set up, start-up
packages and cost centers set up, and if they have any additional issues. The responses
received in large part were positive. Dr. Bose sent the survey to understand what the
needs are of the faculty so we can be better prepared for next year. He will send the
responses to the RSC.
Funding for TRBs (tuition revenue bonds) fell through for the new Biomedical Sciences 2
Building. Therefore, Dr. Short, Dr. Carlucci, and Dr. Bose are working on funding to move
forward with this building project and DOR will be committing funds.
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There was further discussion of funding to support multi-investigator core facilities
through grants less than $400K; these included:
o NSM received $1.1M, which went to Chemistry, Earth & Atmospheric Sciences,
and some in Biology.
o Engineering received $1.1M, which went to the Nanofabrication Lab, NCALM,
Chemical Engineering, Civil & Environmental Engineering, and Electrical &
Computer Engineering.
o CLASS received $250,000 in the music area.
o Optometry received $360,000 pending a core facility proposal.
o Pharmacy received $290,000.
o $7M was committed to the mouse facility; more funding may be needed.
Subcommittee Updates:
Small Grants/New Faculty: Dr. Torres chairs the subcommittee and they reviewed the
guidelines. They recommended changes based on issues that emerged last competition:
1.) Add Research Assistant Professor as an eligible group of faculty.
2.) Add language – faculty applicant should have start up funds less than $50K (does not
include renovations).
3.) Faculty can apply for either small grant or new faculty grant, but not both.
4.) Remove Instructor as an ineligible group.
A question was raised about research faculty and their ranks. It was decided to table the
question of rank for next year’s program, and Dr. Torres will meet with Dr. Ottinger about the
issue. In order to address this question, DOR will provide information on the rank, department,
and college of previous recipients.
The Committee voted and approved all recommended changes to the guidelines. An
announcement with updated guidelines will be posted with the announcement of the Small
Grants and the New Faculty awards programs.
Excellence in Research & Scholarship – Dr. Lee provided an update from his subcommittee.
There was a complaint received last year related to a faculty member receiving a Farfel award
as well as an Excellence in Research & Scholarship award. The question was raised as to
whether or not faculty should be allowed to receive just one or both awards. Some agreed with
that proposal while others noted that each of the awards emphasizes different contributions.
After discussion in which no policy emerged with any consensus, a decision was made to table
the discussion for a future meeting with the possible drafting of a new policy.
Dr. Fletcher reported a conversation last May regarding defining Research & Scholarship. How
do we define Research as being different from Scholarship? Some RSC members feel that
Research & Scholarship both mean the same thing (no difference). One concern is that if the
focus is on successful research according to funding and funding level, some excellent faculty
may be disadvantaged.
Dr. Bose stated that the University has over 1200 faculty members and 8 awards are given each
year. We should all be cognizant of the contributions people make to research. Also, the
selection committees are chosen from a wide array of colleges and dollar amounts are
normalized by the selection committees.
Dr. Lee will send out revised guidelines for the Excellence in Research & Scholarship awards.
GEAR Awards: Dr. Ogmen will be reviewing the guidelines for the GEAR awards and will be
happy to receive comments and suggestions.
Centers & Institutes: The subcommittee will meet before the next meeting and will have a
report for next time.
Resources & Core Facilities: Dr. Burns said the subcommittee will be meeting with Dr. Ottinger
and Cris Milligan to go over recommendations from last year. They will look at core facility
guidelines and discuss the revised guidelines drafted by Dr. Burns. Once they’re approved, they
will go back to Dr. Ottinger and Cris for review and then to Dr. Bose. Dr. Burns will update the
RSC on the subcommittee’s efforts to formulate new guidelines by the next meeting.
Conflict of Interest: Dr. Burns attended the first COI meeting. He found the deliberations
professional and positive with no issues.
Intellectual Property: Dr. Stuart asked Dr. Clarke to give an update. Dr. Clarke did not highlight
any particular piece of IP. A mini retreat was held in which the IP committee considered putting
forward an iCore program. They are interested in becoming an iCore center and would like to
draw from STEM students to serve in entrepreneurial leads. He would like to talk to the
committee at some point in regards to moving the agenda forward and developing ways to get
students involved in NSF & iCORE.
Dr. Clarke also mentioned IPX - a company they have engaged. They are essentially an IP
clearing house and work on commission. They are asked to look at certain parts of IP’s and
identify possible licensing opportunities. This is a way to get a return on investment and IPX is
one of the pathways we are utilizing to identify technologies that can go to market.
New Business / Old Business:
RCR Presentation: Dr. Bose introduced Kirstin Rochford, Director of Research Compliance. Dr.
Bose hired her 2 years ago from MD Anderson.
Kirstin has been working with a consultant, Dr. Sandy Arntz who was at the meeting. She made
a presentation on the Responsible Conduct of Research; she and Ms. Rochford highlighted
several items:
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Their goal was to provide PI’s with resources.
They took a poll and the results were mixed. Some colleges had tracking in place, others
did not. They have updated RCR policy to be current and plan on training for tracking.
Matrix – is a tool to assist the development of RCR plans.
They discovered that quite a few resources are available on campus and that tracking
seemed to be the biggest need among colleges.
There’s one thing that still needs to be worked out: If UH is a sub-awardee, it’s more
difficult to track. Ms. Rochford is going to talk more with Post Award and InfoEd, and
Dr. Lee will take up the issue with his subcommittee.
InfoEd Update:
An update on InfoEd was given by Mr. Muhammad Soonasra. He said the University is
implementing InfoEd on November 1, 2013, with the goal to have InfoEd replace RAMP. Spin
will be replacing Pivot. All faculty have access to the database and will still have Cayuse as a
backup. Resources are available through the website and DOR and colleges are hosting
training sessions.
There was a discussion about what people are saying about implementation. There are
departments that still do not know about it. Committee members were encouraged to
schedule InfoEd trainings in their department. Overall, InfoEd has received a positive response
and the trainings have been well attended.
Charge-Back Mechanisms:
Ms. Cris Milligan gave an overview of charge-back mechanisms, which include three options:
1. Specialized Facility – Recharge Center: Provides goods/services to other UH
departments, faculty and staff members, and students; may recover costs from a federal
grant and provider is a service unit of the University.
2. Non-Service Unit – Expenditure Reallocation & Correction: Provides goods/services to
another UH department; costs are not being charged to a federal grant, and provider is
a non-service unit of the University.
3. Auxiliary Enterprise – Furnishes goods/services primarily to students, faculty and/or
staff; charges a fee that directly relates to the cost of the goods/services delivered
which is managed as a self-supporting entity.
There will be a continued discussion as Dr. Fletcher’s subcommittee works on guidelines.
Reduction in Force Policy:
Dr. Dryer gave a report on the Reduction in Force Policy for Post Docs and Research Associates.
If Post Docs or RA’s are funded by external sources and someone in the department is let go
because funding runs out, HR requires you to offer the job (when hiring reoccurs) to the person
who lost the job. The concern is that when it’s time to hire, the needs for the position may
have changed.
The subcommittee was asked to make a recommendation to HR requesting that Post Docs and
RA’s are not treated the same way as others. One idea mentioned was creating an exempt
category for employees.
Dr. Harold and Dr. Dryer will charge the task force and will give a report at the next meeting.
Vacation & Sick Leave Payout:
Ms. Selesta Hodge will give an update at the next meeting.
The meeting was adjourned at 3:06 pm.
The next meeting will be Friday, November 15, at the same location from 1:30 – 3:00 pm.